Stephen Kuusisto
Encyclopedia
Stephen Kuusisto is an American
poet
.
in March 1955 where he spent most of his childhood. His father worked as a professor of government at the University of New Hampshire
and wanted to study the Cold War
, so he moved his family to Helsinki
, Finland
, from 1958 to 1960. Later in 1963, his father took a job working for New York
’s governor, Nelson Rockefeller
, to improve the state’s university system, so the Kuusisto family moved to Albany, New York
. He was born three months premature, along with his identical twin brother, who died at one day old. Kuusisto’s blindness is a result of a condition called “retinopathy
of pre-maturity,” where the eyes’ retinas do not fully develop in the third trimester of pregnancy. As a result, his retinas were permanently scarred, so he could only “see colors and torn geometries”. There were numerous complications because of ROP: nystagmus
, also known as, “darting eyes” when the eyes cannot focus, and strabismus
or “crossed eyes.” At five years old, he underwent multiple eye surgeries to correct his crossed eyes. Kuusisto says that during this recovery “is when [he] learn[ed] to hear,” which influenced his 2006 memoir, Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening. Kuusisto also has a photographic memory.
In rural New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s, he was categorized alongside World War II
veterans, as he went unnoticed in society. Additionally, there was no information available during Kuusisto’s childhood and adolescence on how to raise blind
children. Instead, Kuusisto was taught to “disavow [his blindness]” and attempt to “live like other children” through his kaleidoscope
lens. Kuusisto’s mother had to “fight with the local district to gain [him] admission to an ordinary first-grade classroom,” since it would be “another thirty years before people with disabilities are guaranteed their civil rights in the United States”.
and the Iowa Writers' Workshop
and is also a Fulbright Scholar
. He became a dual faculty member at the University of Iowa
where he teaches creative nonfiction in the English Department and also acts as a public humanities scholar at the university’s Carver Institute of Macular Degeneration. For years, he has acted as a speaker on education, diversity, public policy and disability. Kuusisto learned to read Braille
at the age of thirty-nine and has produced, and continues to produce professional works of poetry and literature.
In his writing career, Stephen wrote a memoir entitled Planet of the Blind (1998) which jump-started his career, landing his poems and essays in such magazines as Harper's
, The New York Times Magazine
, Partisan Review
and other various anthologies. He also made appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show
, Dateline NBC
, and BBC
. This memoir catalogs the lifelong struggle of societal acceptance as well as personal acceptance of his blindness. Some of his other works include Only Bread, Only Light (2000), a collection of poems that portray the strangely beautiful world of visual imagery and extraordinary yet delicate language.
Currently, he is in the process of writing a collection of prose poems for Copper Canyon Press
entitled Mornings with Borges. He is also working on a set of political poems that address disability. Stephen also founded a foundation Kaleidoscope Connections LLC with his wife Connie which helps to raise awareness of disability.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Early life
Stephen Kuusisto was born in Exeter, New HampshireExeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...
in March 1955 where he spent most of his childhood. His father worked as a professor of government at the University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
and wanted to study the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, so he moved his family to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, from 1958 to 1960. Later in 1963, his father took a job working for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
’s governor, Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, to improve the state’s university system, so the Kuusisto family moved to Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. He was born three months premature, along with his identical twin brother, who died at one day old. Kuusisto’s blindness is a result of a condition called “retinopathy
Retinopathy
Retinopathy is a general term that refers to some form of non-inflammatory damage to the retina of the eye. Frequently, retinopathy is an ocular manifestation of systemic disease.-Pathophysiology:Causes of retinopathy are varied:...
of pre-maturity,” where the eyes’ retinas do not fully develop in the third trimester of pregnancy. As a result, his retinas were permanently scarred, so he could only “see colors and torn geometries”. There were numerous complications because of ROP: nystagmus
Nystagmus
Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary eye movement, acquired in infancy or later in life, that may result in reduced or limited vision.There are two key forms of Nystagmus: pathological and physiological, with variations within each type. Nystagmus may be caused by congenital disorders,...
, also known as, “darting eyes” when the eyes cannot focus, and strabismus
Strabismus
Strabismus is a condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned with each other. It typically involves a lack of coordination between the extraocular muscles, which prevents bringing the gaze of each eye to the same point in space and preventing proper binocular vision, which may adversely...
or “crossed eyes.” At five years old, he underwent multiple eye surgeries to correct his crossed eyes. Kuusisto says that during this recovery “is when [he] learn[ed] to hear,” which influenced his 2006 memoir, Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening. Kuusisto also has a photographic memory.
In rural New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s, he was categorized alongside World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veterans, as he went unnoticed in society. Additionally, there was no information available during Kuusisto’s childhood and adolescence on how to raise blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
children. Instead, Kuusisto was taught to “disavow [his blindness]” and attempt to “live like other children” through his kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope
A kaleidoscope is a circle of mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other end creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off the mirrors...
lens. Kuusisto’s mother had to “fight with the local district to gain [him] admission to an ordinary first-grade classroom,” since it would be “another thirty years before people with disabilities are guaranteed their civil rights in the United States”.
College and career
Stephen Kuusisto graduated from Hobart and William Smith CollegesHobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, New York, are together a liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. In athletics, however, the two schools compete with separate teams, known as the Hobart Statesmen and the...
and the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
and is also a Fulbright Scholar
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
. He became a dual faculty member at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
where he teaches creative nonfiction in the English Department and also acts as a public humanities scholar at the university’s Carver Institute of Macular Degeneration. For years, he has acted as a speaker on education, diversity, public policy and disability. Kuusisto learned to read Braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
at the age of thirty-nine and has produced, and continues to produce professional works of poetry and literature.
In his writing career, Stephen wrote a memoir entitled Planet of the Blind (1998) which jump-started his career, landing his poems and essays in such magazines as Harper's
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
, Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
and other various anthologies. He also made appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
, and BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. This memoir catalogs the lifelong struggle of societal acceptance as well as personal acceptance of his blindness. Some of his other works include Only Bread, Only Light (2000), a collection of poems that portray the strangely beautiful world of visual imagery and extraordinary yet delicate language.
Currently, he is in the process of writing a collection of prose poems for Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
entitled Mornings with Borges. He is also working on a set of political poems that address disability. Stephen also founded a foundation Kaleidoscope Connections LLC with his wife Connie which helps to raise awareness of disability.
Memoir
- ’’Planet of the Blind’’ (1998)
- ’’Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening’’ (2006)
Planet of the Blind
Planet of the Blindhttp://www.stephenkuusisto.com/planetoftheblind.html is the first of Kuusisto’s two memoirs. It was published in 1998 by Dial Press and quickly became a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year". Planet of the Blind tracks Kuusisto’s life from a fervent youth into his adulthood as a poet and writer. As a youth, Kussisto was willing to climb trees, ride a bike and submit himself to perils that tested his visual impairment. Kuusisto admits that his family was unprepared to deal with his disability. In Planet of the Blind he writes “There are no books about blind children or how to bring them up, no associations of parents or support materials, at least not in rural New Hampshire. Instead there are assumptions: Blindness is a profound misfortune, a calamity really, for ordinary life can’t accommodate it.” http://www.stephenkuusisto.com/planetoftheblind.html (p. 13) Because of the stigma attached to disability, Kuusisto’s parents enrolled him into public school (as opposed to a school for the blind) against the advice of officials. As an adult, Kuusisto traveled, went bird watching, and eventually became a published poet and writer. Of Planet of the Blind, Donna Seaman of Booklist Magazines writes "... as Kuusisto muses on how blindness is perceived by the sighted world and relates his fearsome and wonderful adventures before and after he finally teamed up with a guide dog, his incredible resolve, good humor, and irrepressible love for life remind us of the awesome power of the imagination, and the true meaning of vision."http://www.stephenkuusisto.com/planetreviews.htmlOnly Bread Only Light
Only Bread Only Light is Stephen Kuusisto’s collection of poetry published in 2000. The cover displays Max Beckmann's painting Still Life with Fallen Candles, 1929.http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatochy/1429787726/ It could be argued that the fallen candles are representative of Kuusisto’s blindness. Kuusisto writes, "I see like a person who looks through a kaleidoscope, my impressions of the world are at once beautiful and largely useless." In Only Bread Only Light, Kuusisto contradicts poetry’s traditional reliance on visual imagery and faces readers with multiple levels of rich sensual imagery, particularly sound imagery, to cultivate a new world of poetic “listeners”. In Beth L. Virtanen’s review of Only Bread Only Light entitled Stephen Kuusisto's Work Delights and Surpriseshttp://google.com/search?q=cache:zFykjtZWJAQJ:www.finnishamericanreporter.com/kuusistoapr05.doc+Beth.+Virtanen+review+of+Only+Bread+Only+Light+entitled+Stephen+Kuusisto%27s+Work+Delights+and+Surprises&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us she writes “He speaks unabashedly about being blind, about love, about poetry, about dependence on a dog, about finding beauty in surprising places.”Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening
Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening is Stephen Kuusisto’s second memoir to date, published in 2006. Written in the form of linked essays, Kuusisto offers his story of living a life by ear, developing an aural landscape so that he hears “layers of space” rather than sees them—Reed Elsevier of Publisher’s Weekly contends: “A crowd is not a crowd to him; instead it is a series of sound points, indicating space, pace, rhythm and mood” --and of overhearing the world taking place about him. Eavesdropping becomes an art for Kuusisto, the attentive, active listener and keen observer that he is, and the memoir is composed of countless anecdotes recounting his experiences doing just that. He discusses his childhood and reveals that he was more of a recluse, his constant companion being music—from the rhythm of the wind, to the sound of trees tapping on windows, to the song of birds, to the Vitrola he discovers in his grandmother’s attic—but particularly the sounds of Enrico Caruso, a famous Italian tenor. Kuusisto also confides that his grandmother was his first “guru of listening”. Donna Seaman of Booklist writes of his memoir:
“As Kuusisto recounts further seminal moments and improbable adventures, he presents exquisitely rendered soundscapes that capture aspects of the world most of us barely register, from the storm of traffic to the cacophony of our myriad machines to the songs of trees. As he goes "sight-seeing by ear" in places as diverse as Iceland and Venice, and celebrates the music and literature that sustain him, Kuusisto foregrounds the aural realm and evinces great tenacity and trust in his candid tales of life as an acute and contemplative listener in a loud and hectic world.”
Essays and articles
Kuusisto's essays and poetry have been featured in a number of newspapers and literary magazines including:- Harper's
- Partisan Review
- Poetry
- The Bark
- The New York Times Magazine
- The Washington Post Magazine
Kaleidoscope Connections
Kaleidoscope Connections LLC was founded by Stephen Kuusisto and his wife Connie in order to promote disability awareness and to work toward forming stronger ties between those who have disabilities and those who don’t. Their foundation works in union with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to make a move toward providing adequate customer service for the disabled—to bridge the gap between the mere willingness to provide and a certain “‘comfort level’” in doing so". Kaleidoscope Connections paves the way for a “kaleidoscope of change” by creating opportunities for branching out and sharing experiences with a wide range of people. The program encourages disability awareness through:- Customized entertainment (i.e. music and comedy)
- Disability Etiquette 101
- Keynotes
- Literary readings and discussions
- Talks and workshops on college campuses
- Workshops: Customer service for people with disabilities
Appearances
Stephen Kuusisto has made guest appearances on the following:- Animal Planet
- Dateline NBC
- “Talk of the Nation” on National Public Radio
- The Arts & Entertainment Network
- The BBC
- The Leeza Gibbons Show
- The Oprah Winfrey Show
- The Voice of America